In Sanhe, Pinggu and Jixian areas, dawn usually breaks around 5:20 in the morning in August, and now is the darkest period before dawn.
However, for the night sky between Sanhe County and Pinggu County, darkness is only temporary, and light seems to be the theme, because as early as after the Japanese army launched the first wave of artillery attacks, the entire dark sky was covered with waves.
The intensive artillery fire, flight and explosion light illuminated everything brightly. The gorgeous orange, dark red, and crimson light were like streaks of lightning traveling through the dark clouds, splitting the entire sky.
.The whine and roar of the artillery shells were earth-shattering, and the sound shook the surrounding areas, just like bursts of thunder awakening the earth.
If you have never been to the battlefield in person, you will probably never understand how terrifying the power of a large-caliber howitzer is. Take the Taisho 4-year-old 150mm field howitzer equipped by the third brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery Corps as an example. This howitzer cannon
The tube length is 2190 mm, the pitch angle can reach 65 degrees, the projectile weight is 36 kg, the projectile muzzle velocity is 389 m/s, and the maximum range is 8800 meters. When a shell falls and explodes, even if it is not hit by shrapnel within 20 meters, it will be within this area.
Personnel will also die from the violent shock wave, and the radius of destruction of the shell fragments is as high as fifty meters. As long as a person is hit by one piece, he will not die but will be seriously injured. Only a distance of two hundred meters is truly safe.
One can imagine the dire consequences that would occur when the exposed artillery positions of the Anjia Army were bombarded by heavy artillery of this caliber.
So, amidst the earth-shattering explosions, huge orange fireballs exploded one after another at the Anjia Army's artillery positions along the long highway, blasting away gun barrels, machine guns, and rifles.
Bayonets and spearheads, as well as human limbs and severed arms were constantly lifted up into the sky and poured everywhere.
The heavy artillery of the Japanese army was also mixed with the 75mm mountain artillery of two artillery regiments. The bombardment of the field artillery was so dense that the distance between them was almost indistinguishable. The simple loess road connecting the two county towns of Sanhe and Pinggu was blown up in an instant.
beyond recognition.
In particular, the power of the 150 mm caliber heavy howitzer is too terrifying. Every roar blasts a huge deep hole on the Anjia Army's front line, blowing all objects covered by the projectiles into pieces and quickly
It was thrown out, completely strangled, and torn into pieces. When it landed, you could only see a bloody mass, but you couldn't tell which part of the body it was.
Dense artillery shells fell repeatedly on the entire yellow dirt road, and the sharp steel fragments screamed miserably, raging everywhere without any scruples, destroying all targets it approached, and destroying the position that the Anjia Army had finally stabilized.
, once again turned the world upside down.
Just over ten minutes ago, Anjiajun's artillery unit gave the two Japanese artillery regiments a taste of what artillery hell was. Now, the Japanese immediately retaliated with a more violent and determined attitude!
Anjia Army's artillery and adjacent infantry suffered extremely heavy losses. Only the sixty-four 125 howitzers of the two artillery regiments directly under the Fifth Army Corps Headquarters and the Seventeenth Army Headquarters were temporarily saved because they did not join the previous shelling.
.
Faced with the extraordinary firepower of the Japanese heavy artillery, although Major General Zhang Zhongkang, the head of the artillery regiment directly under the corps, stated that he had locked the location of the Japanese artillery positions, and once the order was given to fire, the Japanese offensive would be disrupted as soon as possible. But as the last resort in hand
It was a trump card that Hu Jialin did not dare to play easily. No one knew whether the frenzied Japanese invaders had any backup plans. If all sixty-four 125 howitzers were lost, the Fifth Army would be surrounded by the Japanese army.
At this time, we really had no choice but to abandon all our baggage, take the sick and wounded, escape into Panshan and Danan Mountains, and fight guerrillas.
Just when Hu Jialin was hesitant, after receiving the news that the main force of the Anjia Army and the Japanese 20th and 27th Divisions were engaged in fierce battles on the front line of Jushantou, a Japanese mixed brigade in Sanhe County also began to move out of the city.
Be active.
The Major General, one of the captains of the brigade, felt very ashamed that he had been deceived by the empty airs of the Anjia Army. He ordered his men to find out what the trucks outside the east gate of the county with their headlights on and their engines running regardless of fuel consumption had.
If there is no one to guard them, if they can capture these vehicles intact, it will be a big achievement for the country with poor resources.
A squadron of the Japanese army had just rushed out of the east gate. The Anjia army convoy, which seemed to sense the approaching crisis, all turned off their headlights. Sanhe County, which was originally directly illuminated by the car lights, suddenly fell into darkness.
Human eyes always have a gradual adaptation process to the sudden darkness. Just when the Japanese soldiers stopped and waited for their eyesight to recover, a truck suddenly started, the motor roared, and the speed became faster and faster. As the truck crossed the ditch and river
When crossing the bridge, the driver pushed open the cab door, jumped into the river below, and disappeared with a "gudong" sound.
The truck still roared and rushed straight towards the east gate of Sanhe County.
The Japanese officers and soldiers "Yi Yi Ya Ya" raised their guns and fired, but the car showed no intention of slowing down. It hit five or six people blocking the car in front and roared as it accelerated towards the city.
The rest of the Japanese troops quickly moved out of the way, only to see the truck panting heavily as it rushed on the straight road and finally hit a building outside a three-story building more than 300 meters away from the city gate.
On the sandbag bunker facing the street.
Because the truck was traveling too fast, the front of the truck suddenly stopped. Under the action of inertia, the carriage behind it continued its forward momentum and stood up at a high speed of 70 degrees. The entire carriage was like a simple ejector, throwing the cargo it carried.
Everything was thrown out and quickly spread throughout the building.
This building was once the seat of the Japanese and puppet regime in Sanhe County in the Hebei East African Armed Area. It is currently used as the military command center of the Japanese army in the county. Like the four-story building in Yutian County, it is considered a landmark building in Sanhe County.
The mysterious objects in the truck compartment came into contact with the surface of the building wall, and quickly made earth-shattering sounds. The windows of the building instantly shattered. In the burst of flames, thick smoke columns shot straight into the sky. Flames were flying everywhere.
It adhered to the surface of the building and burned rapidly. The mushroom-shaped explosion soared five to six meters high, igniting all the houses near and far. The fire spread like a plague.
Major General, one of the captains of the brigade, was mobilizing troops in front of the telephone. A huge explosion near his ears made him instantly deaf. He stumbled into a corner and his forehead was bleeding profusely.
It was like the Great Kanto Earthquake was happening again. Everyone in the building was knocked to the ground, and panicked screams and exclamations could be heard everywhere.
The Japanese officers and soldiers outside the building hurriedly rushed to put out the fire. The power of the napalm bomb was fully demonstrated. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers who were unaware of the situation were affected, wailing and rolling on the ground, passing on the pain to everyone who came into contact with their bodies.
people.
At this time, another truck rushed towards Sanhe County at high speed, but an explosion occurred in front of the city gate. A dozen Japanese soldiers crowded at the city gate were lifted more than ten meters away by the huge air wave, holding their stomachs and vomiting blood.
, it seemed that he could not survive, but it was a pity that this car was not loaded with napalm bombs, otherwise the city gate would instantly turn into a flaming hell.
It turns out that the various bombs loaded in these truck compartments are all equipped with timed detonators developed by the Syrian government research institute. Once activated, they will explode according to the designated time. They are considered to be the most advanced and luxurious bombs of this era.
Just as the Japanese troops in the city were in chaos, most of the vehicles outside the city began to evacuate in an orderly manner, retreating to Huangtuzhuang Town and Tiejia Ridge, which were still relatively safe for the time being, leaving five trucks behind to continue launching suicide attacks.
I saw the Japanese troops shouting and rushing out of the city again, and another car rushed towards the county seat. This time, after knocking away the crowd, an explosion occurred not far from the city gate, and dozens of Japanese soldiers who were eager to get out of the city were swept away.
In the explosion, screams came one after another.
"Something's wrong. Even after all this effort, it didn't blow up. There don't seem to be as many Japanese troops in the county as we thought." A special team member who was responsible for looking after the remaining vehicles and blocking the Sanhe gate said to his comrades.
"Yes, is our estimate wrong?" Another team member looked solemn.
At this time, the Japanese army saw that they could not get out of the city gate. Annoyed, they began to use mountain artillery and field artillery to cover the highway east of the city with firepower.
The Japanese Army's mixed brigade consists of five Japanese infantry brigades and artillery, engineering, communication and baggage brigades. The entire brigade has about 8,000 people, equipped with 1,800 military horses, and more than 4,000 rifles and cavalry.
, one hundred and twenty grenades, one hundred and twenty light machine guns, thirty heavy machine guns, ten flat-fire cannons, twenty mountain cannons, twelve field cannons and other weapons and equipment. It is a combat weapon with considerable field combat capabilities.
It is normal for units to choose artillery attack when the situation cannot be opened.
As the shells continued to fall near the truck, several special team members did not dare to stay any longer. They immediately drove the vehicles and rushed towards Sanhe County. When passing the Gouhe Bridge, the special team members jumped into the ditch one after another.
Several out-of-control cars were like crazy galloping horses, knocking away everything in their way and charging all the way into Sanhe County from the east gate.
This time the timing device was set according to the sequence of explosions, first from the back and then from the front. First, the last truck exploded at the city gate. The raging flames spattered when the solidification bomb exploded, blocking the east city gate tightly, and any
The Japanese soldiers who tried to break through the wall of fire with their own bravery were all killed in the sea of fire without exception.
The second to last truck and the third truck exploded at the Xijie Village military camp. The bomb blew up all the Japanese troops within a hundred meters and bled to death. The most terrifying thing was still the napalm bomb.
Under the escort of the impact force, the napalm bombs flew hundreds of meters one after another, and exploded one after another when they landed, instantly setting the camp that could accommodate 5,000 officers and soldiers on fire.
Houses near and far were also affected by the flames splashed by napalm, and the entire county was enveloped in a sea of flames.
The last remaining truck miraculously passed through the city and exploded at the west gate of Sanhe, blowing up a checkpoint that had just been set up here and taking with it twenty people sleeping in a tent next to the checkpoint.
Many Japanese were also sent to meet their Amaterasu.
Then the napalm bomb exploded and attached to the city gate, quickly sealing the west gate of Sanhe County.
The entire Sanhe County has turned into a sea of flames. The artillery positions of the Japanese mixed brigade were also surrounded by fire. Countless Japanese soldiers were running around crying and howling. If they were not careful, napalm would be attached to their bodies. After struggling helplessly, they screamed.
Waiting for death to come, as if the end is coming.